virginia and daniel, one of my fav wedding last season.  Again, I shot alone on the day without 2nd photographer, which gave me more freedom of the day. Having said that, don’t get me wrong, even though I love working alone, every wedding is unique and some weddings definitely require 2nd photographer for handling all the formal shots requests.

ceremony and reception: repulse bay
make up artist:  Zi Wan of violet
video: ken of simon.the.photo

My fav shot of the day. It’s a first dance photo, I always tell my clients that dance photos are the most difficult shots to take on a wedding day. Lighting is always very dim if not completely darkness, even there are spot lights at the venue, they are usually unpredictable in terms of ligh intensity, color, or how the hotel staff operates them.  What makes it even more difficult is that you can never stage or setup dancing shots (that means you can’t ask the couple to hold or do it again, anyway, I hate taking staged shots).

I like this shot, it has very good timing, composition, and lighting. There ‘re three layers ….. the bride and groom, the parents,and the DJ in the background. Virginia and Daniel ‘re positioned one third of the photos that showed their importance. And the three layers also allow you to flow the focus from the couple to their parents and then to the DJ. While virginia closed her eyes and enjoyed the moment with daniel, the way that the parents looked at them gives a sense of connection between them. At the same time, the DJ behind worked very hard and it helps completing the whole story of this photo.

I had taken three photos of this particular shots and this one stands out with the best capture of the moment.

In terms of lighting, three off camera flashes were used, their locations, power, color were all planned carefully beforehand. The one thing I don’t like is the light on parents is too strong, though it can be fixed easily in post possessing.

isn’t it good to has a beautiful roof top in the morning to take a shot of the wedding gown.

nice shoes !!!

discussing the game session at the roof top

are you ready?

going to the roof for the game session

tea ceremony

ceremony at the repulse bay, lots of details

very beautiful veil, but didn’t know why it was not used in the ceremony at the end

going to the ceremony

the lighting of the ceremony was very challenging. the ceremony was supposed to be started at 5:00, but  somehow it was delayed to 5:45 pm. light was dim and the whole venue was under the shadow of the hotel, which gave you  a very blue tone. What made it more challenging, the yellow venue flood lights were on and it gave us a mixed light to work with (blue available light with yellow tungsten flood light)

the reception

waiting for the start of the dinner

we had a ” Chinese face changing” performance to kick start the dinner

father ’s speech

maid of honor ’s speech

best man ’s speech

another fav dance photo of the day

and the party never ends !!!

thank you so much !!!!!

congratulations !!!!!

getting ready: MGM hotel
ceremony: the Cathedral

love this moment during the ceremony – a beautiful shot of janis

getting ready in the MGM hotel

the tea ceremony

nice location inside MGM

tea ceremony @ david ’s family

getting ready for the ceremony

wow !!!! it ’s ready !!!!

the ceremony at the The Cathedral

did you see the crowd gathered outside the Cathedral ?

congratulations

after the ceremony and lunch reception, we ‘re free for the rest of the time and had a few hours of location shooting. Thanks david for bringing me to all the beautiful places

Having said that, there’re so many beautiful weddings and pre weddings in last two months. I wish I had more time to share all these happy and beautiful moments here ……

lily and charles, one of my fav wedding – a small but beautiful wedding – which is my most favourite style of works in my portfolio. Nothing rush, people ‘re friendly and I am the only photographer, no 2nd photographer running around.

ceremony and reception: The Hong Kong Country Club
video: Ken of simon.the.photo

one of my fav of the day – father and bride walking towards the ceremony venue, beautiful lawn, pretty line of the bridesmaids, and nice tree shadow. it’s always difficult to take a shot like this when working alone as you might risk missing other important shots because you ‘re too far away.

lily ’s family, lily ’s father always holding his video camera taking video all day.

nice dress, isn’t it?

the game – what a happy man !!

meeting the bride

leaving for charles ‘ family

the ceremony at Hong Kong country club

gorgeous !!!

below are all my fav shots of the ceremony. working alone and taking so many shots with different angels is not an easy task. lots of planning and experience are required.

the cocktail time

a few portrait shots in the afternoon

cool !!! lots of diy items in this wedding

a diy box for storing guests’ gifts

one of my fav shot during the cocktail time.

very very nice music !!!!

the first dance

congratulations !!!

my answer is:

having more programs on your wedding day doesn’t mean you ‘ll have more beautiful photos. do you think you can relax and enjoy when your wedding day rundown is fully packed, I have seen so many couple that are completely exhausted even before the banquet because of the non-stop rundown. I always found that my most beautiful photos are always taken in those simple, but warm wedding

less is more, something that stephanie and alan aimed for. No game, no tea ceremony, we even didn’t have a chance to meet alan and his groomsmen before the ceremony. Everything happened inside the hotel, no travelling around and no rush at all. Having said that, with such a simple arrangement, I found that everyone was so relaxed and enjoyed the wedding a lot!  And there ’s  more touching and beautiful moments !!!!

ceremony and reception: grand hyatt hong kong
celebrant: michael lai
video: ken of simon.the.photo
make up artist: Bart Ko

here is their same day video edit … …. you ‘ll see what does “less is more” mean in this video

I always hope to write about every weddings and pre-weddings photos here, but the fact is, it is getting more and more difficult for me. So, if you can’t see your photos here, don’t worry, there is nothing wrong with your photos, it is just because of my busy schedule.

Anyway, love to share the same day photo edit of the wedding of vicky and daniel here, which I did last week.

ceremony: bethanie chapel
reception: four seasons hotel hong kong
make up artist: polly of faces hk
celebrant: anthony lam
video: ken of simon.the.photo

here is the same day photo slideshow. slideshow is shortened for web display purpose.

After 5 years, ada, talent development executive of Ogilvy Public Relation, and kevin, now the agency’s digital strategy manager, married last month at the HKCEC. As kevin said, ada is always a happy, creative and positive person, and it was truly reflected from all the details of their wedding – the bright and vivid color theme, the wedding montage, the colorful candy corner, the funny photo corner (click here to have a look of the photo corner), and last but not least, her hip-hop performance in the banquet, everything was just awesome! !!!!

Our schedule in the afternoon was very flexible, instead of going outdoor for location shooting, ada decided going back to their office, what a great idea!!!!! Nothing better than taking wedding photos at where they met each other and fell in love.

banquet: HKCEC
make up artist: elaw @ The look studio

one of my fav of the afternoon photo session. love the red color, isn’t it matched to the color theme of the wedding? the inclusion of the company name does link everything together in the photo

BTW, extraordinary couple gets extraordinary coverage. They sent some of the photos to SCMP and their wedding was featured on almost a full page coverage on SCMP, awesome !!!! Don’t miss to click the image to read more about their true office love story

ceremony: Bethanie Chapel
reception: Harbour Grand Hong Kong

having Hacken and Alan on stage giving “special blessing” to the newly wed.
It’ s really 『左麟右李』

some of my fav “getting ready” shots in the morning.

the prayer time of mother and daughter

tea ceremony, Jessica and her brother

am I pretty ?

ceremony at the bethanie chapel

you may kiss the bride !!!!

congratulations

we had 5 min taking a few portraits before leaving the chapel

Then, we went to university of Hong Kong to have 15 min location shooting there.

reception at the harbour grand hong kong

nothing happier than listening to great singing and great guitar music when taking wedding photos !!!

being a senior management of record company, can Ronny sing ???? em………

my fav of the day. it was taken at the stanley military cemetery – one of the most popular photo location for my clients. Even after taking photos there over hundreds times, I still love this location a lot, and I was completely fascinated by the ever changing scene there. The view was different every time I went there because of the diffenence of time, weather, seasons.

locations: inspiration lake, the peak, stanley market, stanley military cemetery
our 1st location of the day: inspiration lake of disneyland

another fav of the day !!!!!

we dropped by the peak to take a few photos before we went to the stanley market

next location: stanley market

another fav photo at the military cemetery

congratulations !!!!! Look forward to seeing you two again in your dec wedding !!!!

I think all my clients are smart enough to tell if a photo is posed or captured in a candid way, aren’t they? Yes, I do pose my clients when I am taking portraits of them as I need to do the best for the brides and make sure they look absolutely gorgeous in my photos. However, for wedding day photos, I just hate staged or setup shots. IMHO, touching moments are everywhere in a wedding, you just need to have a correct mind set, experience and technique to “SEE AND CAPTURE” it.  On the other hand, if a photographer just tried to create (or even setup)  the moments  all the time, with this mind set, he (or she) will never see the real touching moment, or even he see it, he will miss that shot, or capture it with wrong composition, wrong lighting, wrong angle. What is worse … … his photos will  turns out very similar (or boring, from my perspective) for the different wedding because he tried to create similar shots in every wedding.

Having said all that, back to peggy and raymond. “love is everywhere” – this is how I describe their wedding.

ceremony and reception: island shangri la

one of my fav of the day: mother and daughter

a few getting ready shots in the morning

yeah !!

the happy groom !!

yes. we made it !!!!

raymond was reading a letter to peggy that made everyone laugh

peggy ’s sister, another touching moment at the tea ceremony

love is everywhere, isn’t it ?

tea ceremony at raymond ’s family

raymond ’s brother

just after having taken the above shot, I moved into another position in a few seconds and managed to capture this wonderful moment. Do you think it ’s by chance, by luck or by experience ???

we didn’t do too many portraits, just a few in the afternoon

instead, we spent some time taking some good family photos, I love this idea

the ceremony at the atrium, island shangri la at around 6:30pm

wow !!!! let’s celebrate !!!

what a happy groom !!!!

a happy and touching slideshow that they prepared themselves

hi hi, congratulations !!!!!!

locations: home, lily and bloom in central, stanley market, stanley military cemetery, 1881 heritage in TST

my fav of the day, and it ’s one of the most challenging.
the view here was so nice that I chose to use a wide angle lens to capture the view, at the same time, I still tried  to make sure that kristy was the focus of the photo – we could still see her beautiful smile, sexy pose and nice details of her dress.

in terms of lighting, it was quite challenging here. There ‘re three sides of windows, the middle and the right windows ‘re facing outside of the building so  it was illuminated by available light, while the left side windows ‘re facing the interior of the club with no light at all. I had put two flashes behind the left windows to give them some light. color of the flashes for kristy and for the windows ‘re carefully chosen that all windows light turned out blue in this photo and it matched the color of the dress perfectly

stop one: we started the shooting at home in the morning, all photos are taken by available light only.

I find it difficult to include pets in wedding photos, especially doggies that keep on running and running around.

a corner at house with wonderful light.

2nd stop: lily and bloom – all photos ‘re taken with flash light

another fav of the day

hahaha, one martin and three kristy

thanks canly for helping to make this great photo!!!!

third stop: stanley market and military cemetery

the military cemetery is my fav spot for sunset light photo

last stop: 1881 heritage at TST. 

congratulations

it ’s not an exception for the wedding of vanessa and jacky, without the beautiful bride and groom, their friendly families, the wonderful wedding party and the awesome wedding planner, we could never capture so many nice pictures and video.

If you have seen the same day photo edit of their wedding before, here is their nice wedding video.

ceremony and reception: four seasons hotel hong kong
video: ken of simon.the.photo
wedding planner: the theme wedding

HATE: it is so hot now and it ’s really very tough shooting pre-wedding outdoor, not to mention, the humidity and mosquito … … In addition, there is less wedding (that means less business) in the summer time because of the raining and typhoon weather .. … that ’s why so many photographers organizing oversea pre-wedding tour during this period … …

LOVE: it is the perfect time for me to take pre wedding photo at the beach. shooting photos with your feet in the cool sea water is just a joy. I feel so excited and get inspired if the client loves to have photos on the beach, and I really don’t care if my camera or lens get dirty or damaged with the salty water or the sand. Of course,  I don’t need you to take off the top and get into the water like christie and raymond did in their pre-wedding session, but as least, please take off your shoes and put your feet into the water.

Let’s feel the heat and get wet !!!!

make up artist: polly of faces hk
location: the chinese university of hong kong, Shek O, central

this is the christie at shek O, one of my fav of the day !!!!

this is raymond at shek O, OMG … … Who said I don’t take good photo of the groom?

our 1st stop: chinese university of hong kong

2nd location: shek O

they looked like enjoying it a lot, but in face, it ’s really difficult to stand at this location. thank you for doing it.

let ’s get wet !!!

last stop at central !!!!

However,  for brenda and Holger, as they live and work overseas most of the time, they love the city landscape a lot that the decision of having the wedding in hong kong is a no brainer and having some portraits with the real face of hong kong is really something they love to have.

that ’s something that is so unique in hong kong

holger in the morning

brenda in the mornig – what a beautiful dress !!!!

the brenda family

the game session

the first meet

a detail shot

the tea ceremony – one of my favourite time of a wedding day that there are always lots of great moments

the busy tea ceremony – love all the facial expressions of all the different people, it’s so interesting to see what they doing at this moment one by one in the photo

a small touch, a great moment

a few portraits in the afternoon in the hotel room

started shooting in Central, guess where I took this?

we had the ceremony in the ballroom at 6:30pm

the childhood slideshow

the farewell time. congratulations !!!

Even though I had shoot under very bad weather conditions before, but I really prefer to shoot under sunshine as there is too much pressure on the couple and it is difficult to protect the equipments when shooting under rain.

Cindy and Bennalt asked me the same question a few days before their prewedding session because the weather forecast was really bad. It turned out that it rained the whole day, and luckily, they made the decision to book a room inside the 1881 heritage and we could continue the shooting in the afternoon and at night.

makeup artist: Man Chan
locations: maryknoll convent school, 1881 heritage

1881 heritage is a very nice location, but it is also difficult to shoot over 6-7 hours just inside a hotel room. that ’s the case for cindy and bennalt. After checking in at 2:00pm, we spent the rest of the day there as it rained so bad outside that we couldn’t go out at all.  It became a challenge for me to spend such a long hours at the same location, but sometimes, this kind of limitation would inspire new ideas. Without new location, new background, it forced to you look at something different at the bride. I noticed that cindy got  beautiful and healthy hair, then, the question was how to feature and highlight her hair in a photo. thanks cindy ’s help and worked with me to get this photo, love it very much. My fav of the day

our first location: maryknoll. another fav of the day. so romantic, isn’t it?

just a plain wall, but their beautiful smiles helps a lot to create this beautiful picture

bad weather, no problem. I got a sun in my pocket (the tiny flash) that can create a sunset look anywhere and anytime.

when I took this shot, it rained very bad. thanks Man Chan, Ka Mui and shirley ’s help for holding three umbrella together to get this shot. Thank you !!!

start shooting at 1881

nice room, isn’t it ? Tried a new lighting setup in this photo, you ‘ll see this kind of photo more and more in the future.

all the following photos are taken at the night time. thanks for the sun in my pocket again.

this dress is stunning !!!!! 

But all the people are different, the dress, the decoration, the family, the light, the smile, the tears are all different, the possibility of photos is just unlimited.

wedding of sam and ryan was early this year,  though a little bit late, it ’s such a beautiful wedding that  I can’t afford not posting their wedding here.

Did you remember sam and ryan? they ‘re the couple that I took the pre-wedding photos at HKU renovation site !!!!

ceremony and reception: grand hyatt hong kong
video: ken of simon.the.photo
makeup artist: joe from hoolala

always having lots of fun taking pictures of them

here is the summary video prepared by ken

I find that “putting on the chinese 掛 ” is always an important and emotional moment in a chinese wedding

sam ’s ready

a special shot of the arrival of ryan

the funny bridal pickup game

tea ceremony. love this shot — like the contrary of the people at the foreground and background

tea ceremony at ryan ’s home

arrival at grand hyatt

we got around 30 min in the afternoon for portrait

ready for the ceremony in the evening

decoration of the reception area

I love this purple color a lot !!!!

got a few minutes to take photos of sam in the ballroom

same day video edit by ken

I feel glad (and lucky) that there are still so many clients that love having pre-wedding photos in Hong Kong and always bring me lot of interesting locations – and kavy and ben are definitely one of them.

they both live in Ma Wan, so we started the shooting at the Ma Wan old village. The last time I was there was already four years ago. This is such a beautiful and quiet location that I love it very much, and it was just like a hiking that we walked around to look for photo opportunities — no specific route, no specific scenic point — that ’s the way of shooting that I love very much.

location: Home, Ma Wan old village, the peak, temple street.
make up artist: cherry from Makeup Rainbow

this is one of my fav photo of the day. this was shot at the peak and here is my thinking process behind this photo.

When I arrived, I saw a patch of light passing through the branches and I immediately thought it was a photo opportunity there. After asking kavy to stand under this light, the next thing that I needed to consider is what should kavy do to blend into the environment. When I take photo of the bride, I always think how I can do the best for her and what should be highlighted in the photo, it can be her eyes, her face, hair, the dress, the shoes, the body figure, the emotion, the smile …. … you name it, the possibility is just unlimited. In this case, I found kavy ’s dress (the back) look awesome, and I was thinking putting her back as the highlight of this pic. By positing her at the right location, with the light and shadow on her back, it gave us a very three dimensional look of her back and her figure. that ’s how this photo was created, all by available light only.

before we started shooting outdoor, we took a few photos at home first

the lovely Ma Wan old village

2nd location: the peak

last location: the temple street. never thought I would take pre-wedding photo here. they brought me here because here  was where Ben first dated Kavy out. Oh … … first dating at temple street ????? Ben, you ‘re awesome !!!!!

Let me talk more about this in next few blog posts.

just finished another very happy wedding this week, and love the same day photo edit very much. Hope you like it as well.

ceremony and reception: four seasons hotel hong kong
video: ken of simon.the.photo
wedding planner: the theme wedding (feel so happy to work with a professional wedding planner like them, highly recommend)

you may not agree, but I always think that wedding is all about the bride, nothing else.

having said that, it’s surprising that, I have several clients recently that the groom really like playing an “active role” in the photos. Sometimes I really feel that the guy has more concern of his outlook and appearance than the bride does.  hahahaha…….. And Jonathan is definitely one of them.  This is a good thing for sure ….. ….. at least I can feel that he is very serious about the quality of the wedding photos, doesn’t like other guys that just help the brides pay the fee, then don’t care about anything of the wedding.    :-)

make up artist: man chan
locations: 1881 heritage, Tai Tam Reservoir, military cemetery, stanley market

wow !!!!! this is jonathan !!!!!

and this is helena.

final touch up !!!

out 1st location: 1881

2nd location: tai tam

3rd location: military cemetery
with such happy couple, we didn’t need any special lighting or location, I just needed to capture the moment !!!!

night shoot at stanley market

I seldom put a photo without a bride as the first photo in a blog post, this is definitely an exception. joji ’s friends prepared an interview video themselves in which lots of joji ‘ s friends shared their happiness and greeting. That video was so touching that made everyone cried.

ceremony and reception: four seasons hotel hong kong
video: ken of simon.the.photo

I love this shot as it is not common to capture the emotion between boys in a wedding. hope you enjoy all photos below.

getting ready shots, evelyn is pretty bride, isn’t she ?

preparing the game

they never stopped making fun in front of the camera

the game !!!

tea ceremony

a moment shot with interesting details

arrived at hotel and had a break….. finally ….

just 30 min portrait in the afternoon, I love that arrangement.

the cake cutting

we had the wedding ceremony just before the start of the banquet

congratulations !!!!

lots of emotion to be captured throughout the whole night

joji, your speech had made everyone cry …. …

going to the after party … …. poor guys … …. these gentlemen got trapped in the escalator for one hour (finally got saved by the firemen)

a same day photo slideshow I did in a wedding during the Easter holiday, really love it !!!! every time  I watched it again in last few days, it recalls my memory of all the happiness in the wedding of annie and angus.

so happy to see annie and angus again after their pre-wedding, which is one of my fav photo session last year (you can see that I have used annie ’s photo in my rate card).

I observed a trend recently that I was shooting more and more alone in wedding , there was no 2nd photographer and I am the only paid photographer for the whole day. I always believe the less no. of crew member on the day, the more natural the wedding couple and the wedding party will look in the camera. Sometimes when I read other photographers ‘ blog showing the large no. of crew member ( multiple photographers,  video cameramen, multiple assistants, the AMAZING list of big and large photo/video equipment …. … ), I just feel curious how they can take picture or video without interrupting the flow of the wedding, without getting attention from all the guests around them.

I am not saying it is suitable to have only one photographer for all weddings, but I am lucky that the style and requirement of most of my clients fit this and I feel very glad about it.

here is the same day photo edit for annie and angus

ceremony: bethanie chapel
reception: peninsula hotel hong kong
video: ken of simon.the.photo
make up artist: Joe of hoolala

you can client the link below for the same day photo edit